Blinding Trust (Mitchell Family, #7)(3)

“It’s no biggie. You’re here now and that’s all that matters.”

I followed behind Amy, who was carrying the cake, while attempting to sing ‘Happy Birthday’, so that everyone else would join in. Finally, the chaos that filled the house, turned to give their full attention to the birthday girl. Her face lit up when she saw her cake. She ran over toward the dining room table and sat down in front of the lit up masterpiece.

All of the kids filled in the chairs around the table and got excited that they would all soon be eating cake and ice cream. Our family loved sweets. Jake and Jax had the cavities to prove it.

Noah and Bella came walking inside together, halfway through the song. They were too caught up in each other to care what was going on with their younger cousins. I didn’t mind, since they didn’t see each other very much. Well, not counting talking on their matching iPads, that my mother-in-law had to buy them for Christmas.

The kids were spoiled, all of them. Colt’s mother had nothing else to do with her time. Aside from taking trips with my parents and her own sister, she spent her free time taking the kids different places. She even treated the whole family to two trips to Disney. It was what she lived for, so we didn’t get on her about it.

Even with being spoiled, mine and Colt’s children knew their place when it came to being home. They knew they couldn’t get away with things like at Grandma’s house.

We stood around, getting each child situated with plates of pure sugar. I think only the females realized what was going to happen in thirty minutes. The boys were going to be bouncing off the walls.

When I was growing up, one Ty was hyper enough. Now there were two of them running around. One drop of sugar and they could bring down a house. God, they were so ornery.

Once the kids had finished eating, I helped Amy and Miranda clean up the mess. Ty’s mom took Addy and put her down for a nap, which was nice of her. Through the years we’d built a new kind of relationship. I’d learned to love her and appreciate what she’d always done to protect her child. There wasn’t anything that I wouldn’t do for mine. It sort of puts things into perspective when you have one of your own.

Speaking of parents, mine moved to Kentucky last year after my father retired. I thought they would be more sad about leaving their life here in North Carolina. Instead, they were thrilled to move close to us. When I say moved, I mean they moved onto the ranch.

Colt’s mother offered for them to move into her huge house, but they insisted on not being a burden. They paid for a nice modular to be built near Karen’s old house. Karen had also offered her house, but my parents wanted Miranda and Conner to always have a place to come with all of their kids.

It worked out great. My mother still worked everyday. She got a job working at one of our produce stands. Actually, she sort of fell into managing it. She loved the job and it gave her the opportunity to meet people from town. They also started attending our church, which gave them even more new friends. I swear they socialized more nowadays then ever before.

Since we were staying at Ty and Miranda’s, we got the kids gathered up and headed over. It was just across the Mitchell property, but far enough where you had to drive.

Ty came over to the vehicle and helped Colt carry our bags. He smacked me on the butt when he walked past me.

“Is it necessary to touch my wife every time you’re near her?” Colt seemed offended, which was weird to me. He’d hadn’t been like that in years.

“Dude, it ain’t like that. I’m just messing around. She likes it.”

I walked in the house and left the two of them to their conversation. They were too old to start rolling around in the dirt, like they used to. Besides, they had no reason to fight. We were all completely happy.



So I thought.



For the rest of our visit, Colt seemed on edge. I had no idea why and I didn’t want to stir the pot by asking. I figured that when we got home, we could discuss it in private. Except when we got home, all Hell broke loose.





Chapter 2


Colt


I didn’t tell her because I didn’t want her to worry when it could have just been nothing. Savanna considered Noah hers. It wasn’t a secret to anyone that Krista was his birth mother. We just didn’t talk about it anymore.



It wasn’t until I got the phone call, a week before we went to North Carolina, that things started to worry me.

When Krista and me were a couple, her little brother came to live with us. Their dad was too drunk to even care. He wasn’t a bad kid. In fact, as soon as he got the chance, he got out of Kentucky to pursue his dream of being a rockstar.

Apparently, big things had happened for him and suddenly his band, which I didn’t know he was a member of, had made it big. Since I didn’t follow that kind of music, I had no idea who his band was. I certainly didn’t recognize his name when he left the message with Savanna. All she could tell me was that someone name Zeke Marlo had called and said it was urgent.

Even after I dialed the out of area number, I still didn’t recognize the voice of the person that picked up. He had to actually explain who he was. We talked for a while, catching up and talking about how he’d been for the past ten years. The topic of his sister dying was short. I could tell it was a sore subject.

Zeke, which is what he legally changed his name to, told me that they were coming to Kentucky for a big charity concert. He asked if I would come out and visit with him while he was there. I didn’t see any harm in it, until he asked if I could bring Noah.